The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

THE AGE, Thursday 23 April 1987 Arts Entertainment Edited by MIKE DALY heat FeelMg the wesf (dhramaitic Working for pleasures Music KENNETH HINCE The Academy Trio, for Musica Viva. (Concert Hall, Tuesday 8.15 pm.) The quality of the material, the melodic Invention, were not totally persuasive, but the lambent intelligence that exists in much of Sitsky's music recurs here, and there is a thrust of confident energy which' is curiously lacking in much of the music we are now composing. These days we are easily satisfied with recognition signals and a technical awareness that shows we have been reading the journals and listening to the tapes, a kind of body language of cbm-pcsition which keeps us within the, tribe. Sitsky's music has never been of this order, has never been modish. Its sources are very wide, as they are in this Fourth Trio, and I suppose that he has been accused of being eclectic.

But his selection of material from these sources has remained quite clear and consistent over the 20 years or more in which I have heard his music. It has given his work an identity which is important to us now, and which will guarantee its place in the canon of Australian music. Byrne appears as deadpan narrator who strays into Virgil during a "celebration of spedalness" connected with the sesquicentenary of Texas. He wanders through a shopping mall, concerts, a church service, a street parade and other events and places, and introduces us to various citizens (a compulsive liar, a loving married couple who speak to each other only through their children, a lovelorn bachelor, a butler who dabbles in voodoo). We are invited to marvel at his revelation that Middle America combines banality and nuttt-ness, one not always distinguishable from the other.

It is the sort of foHcsiness that Jonathan Demme (who subsequently directed 'Stop Making a film of a Talking Heads' concert) explored much more powerfully and affectionately in his feature 'Melvin and Howard'. Even the most unenchanted viewers (among whom I rank myself) will get a chuckle or two out of 'True Stories', and there is plenty of inoffensive music from Talking Heads and other groups. Ed Lachman's photography with its precise framing of buildings and people against a barren landscape, with its flat boldly colored images, like old-fashioned, handpainted postcards t- is a constant pleasure. But the film's heavily contrived tone of cornball naivety is rather wearing. Most of the characters are, a few quirks aside, dull and probably stupid.

It is enough, I feet that as part of the Western world we have to take Ronald Reagan seriously. To be expected to enjoy True Stories' (which at" times looks like a convention of his supporters) is to add ketchup to injury. Although 'True Stories' has been widely interpreted as a love letter to Middle American innocence, I -have a suspicion that Byrne may be taking his admirers for a ride. There seems to be more than an occasional sneer beneath the film's genial surface. Picture.

JOE SABUAK. Report MIKE DALY He also presented the Sydney Dance Company to Melbourne audiences, was a co-promoter of the highly successful touring production of 'HMS Pinafore', starring Paul Eddington. Recently he was appointed co-director, with US pianist and composer Marc Neikrug, of the Victorian Arts Centre's 1988 Summer Music Festival. 1 -1 1 IN a chilly North Melbourne church hall six actors three from Perth and three from Melbourne are stretching their imagination and dramatic skills by recreating life in a hot, dusty mining town in Western Australia. The rehearsal is for "The Hope', by Kalgoorlie playwright Heather Nimmo, a joint production between Melbourne's Playbox and Perth's Western Australian theatre companies.

It begins a three-week season' on Monday at the Studio in the Victorian Arts Centre. Geoff Paine, a Melbourne actor, is shivering in a singlet and underpants. He plays Michael, a young newlywed who quit his boring Melbourne job to seek bis fortune on the goldfields around The Hope, a corrugated iron, outback township. His bride Bet (Perth actress Helen Trenos) follows weeks later to join him and set up their first home. Bet faces heat, male chauvinism, loneliness and the ever-present memory of the previous, desperate occupants of their rented shack.

The young couple's struggle is orchestrated by Boss, Michael's mysterious employer and "friend" (played by Ja-cek Koman, Polish-born, now based in Perth) and a nosey neighbor Mrs (Faith Clayton, also from Perth). The other two characters are played by Melbourne actors Jillian Murray and Ross Williams. 'The Hope' is directed by Andrew Ross, designed by painter Robert Juniper and lit by Duncan Ord a team that has already worked together on successful Perth stage productions of Albert Fa-cey's 'A Fortunate Life' and Randolph Stow's 'Midnite'. Although Andrew Ross was born in Melbourne, where he directed stage productions at Monash University and the Melbourne Theatre Company, he has spent the past 10 years in WA. He is artistic director at Melbourne University's theatre department this year, but plans to return to Perth, which is experiencing an exciting new wave of drama.

'The Hope' is part of a new movement in Western Australia which started with Dorothy Hewett's 'The Man From Muckinupin' in 1979," he said. "There has been steady, if sporadic burgeoning of new plays and local theatre. The most obvious example is 'No by Jack Davis." That production was seen here in 1985 before it went to Canada for the World Theatre Festival. Andrew Ross was working on the WA Theatre Company's first playwrights' workshop when 'The Hope' came up, 18 months ago. if IF THIS was not the most spontaneously cheerful concert we have ever had from Musica Viva, the cause lay in the program.

There were pleasures to be had, but you needed to work to get at them. The playing itself was pleasant and consistently good all night John Wlnther's piano was grave, courteous and attentive. The violin playing of John Harding was decisive, spirited, and generally very accurate; although there was occasionally a slight drift in pitch at the top of the string. Nathan Waks, whom I do not recall hearing for years, has lost none of his excellence. The first work on the program did not tax him with much more than some athletic pizzicato, but for the rest of the evening his cello was not only prominent but beautifully handled.

The co-ordination of the players was excellent Anyone who had gone to Tuesday's concert primarily to listen to the playing rather than the music would have been well rewarded. But the program did not strike me as wisely assembled. It opened with a very early sharp minor Trio of Cesar Franck, music seldom played, not without a certain Inherent charm and some historical interest but exceedingly and remorselessly earnest Half an hour of 117-degree proof earnestness at the start of a concert, without much relief, takes some resolution and fortitude in an audience. And the program ended with the very early major Trio of Brahms, revised and mercifully shortened by him towards the end of his life. Whatever modest delights lurk in this dense and still lengthy score were winkled out in fine style by the players, with the cello of Waks in particular singing richly and valiantly.

But it is improbable that the spirit will be provoked or exalted by this music, especially after it has been dampened by the earnestness of Cesar Franck. I found the central work, the Fourth Trio of Larry Sitsky, the most attractive work on the program. 1 Andrew Ross: a burgeoning of new plays from Western Australia. Hocking to direct 1990 Adelaide Festival Interview MIKE OALY "I don't think there's any way this play would be going on over here and in WA now if it wasn't for plays like 'Muckinupin', 'Fortunate Life', 'Midnite', and 'No Sugar they created the climate and also created the audience for it "It used to be, if you did a local play in Perth, you did it for absolutely altruistic motives and assumed it would be a disaster at the box office. It Just isn't the case any more.

In fact the real box office successes over there have been local plays that's a nice change. 'No Sugar in particular has created a lot of interest in what's coming out of Western Australia. "It's not that the theatre has become parochial there, but people have sensed a local identity isn't something to be ashamed of." Was 'The Hope' set in Kalgoorlie, I asked, where Scots-born playwright Heather Nimmo Uves? "Not really. It's a mythical town, probably east or north-east of Kalgoorlie and smaller like Menzies, Leonora or Mekatharra. I've been out there a few times touring with productions.

Heather's background is in mining. Before she came to Western Australia she was at Balfour in Tasmania prospecting for tin, but her academic background is in psychology a BA (Hons) at Adelaide University." "The Hope' was an ideal production in which to combine Perth and Melbourne talents, Andrew Ross said. "It's not just the content of the play the setting and the production style owes something to traditions that have developed in WA. Designer Bob Juniper's paintings are strongly associated with visions of the West Australian landscape, especially the goldfields. "I couldn't find anyone in Melbourne who could light the way Duncan Ord does because his is a response to that particular environment where the light is particularly strong, and particularly colored and clear and crisp." He describes Juniper's set "a sort of sculptural representation of the landscape.

The house is represented by fragments of structures made mainly out of corrugated perspex. He is attempting to suggest the achitecture is bit like the debris littering the desert The dwellings look insecure and temporary. Randolph Stow's description in another play is 'shacks rented from the wind' TeleScope BARBARA HOOKS mation about the seminars: Bedford Pearce Management (02) 929 4833). One of Tony Shepherd's most talked about projects was the casting of 'Hollywood Wives', Jackie Collins's steamy expose of Tinsel Town's brittle residents. Casting of the production was hampered by two main factors, he recalled.

While there were plenty of takers for 12 of the major roles, the 13th, that of a fading matinee idol (eventually played by Steve Forrest), was regarded with deep suspicion on the basis that art has a habit of imitating life. won't embarrass anyone by naming names but it was offered to many." Did he feel safe walking the streets afterwards? "Oh, yes, yes, yes, it was one of the productions I was most proud of!" His own boss, the redoubtable Aaron Spelling, was the other problem. "Aaron wanted to go to London, but he won't fly, so he took a train a private railroad car to New York, where he boarded the QEII the presidential suite for London. Casting was slow going because he was out of touch for so long." Shepherd's deliberate description of his employer's choice of accommodation aroused curiosity about the truth of reports concerning the Spellings' opulent lifestyle the demolition of a multi-million dollar house to make way for a multi, multi-million dollar house, and private beaches spiked with exotic shells for their daughter to being two of them. "They live very comfortably," Shepherd replied loyally, if enigmatically.

As for the fabled "casting Tony Shepherd was more forthright "Anybody who thinks that going to bed with a casting director producer-director will get them a job deserves to get screwed if you'U pardon the pun." Television Shark warnings from the sea of soaps Divine comedy? Aw shucks, no Films NEIL JILLETT True Stories (Longford, South Yarra). BYRNE, leader of the rock I group Talking Heads, has been nailed in a Tune cover story as having created with True Stories', his first feature film, "a 'Divine Comedy' for the That is overheated praise for a thin, if visually elegant piece of whimsy. Much has been written, by the man himself as well as by others, about how Byrne, in preparation for co-writing and directing this film, collected oddball stories from magazines and newspapers and fashioned them into a cinematic group portrait of Virgil, a small town in Texas. But the making of the film seems to have been more interesting than the film itself, a point implicitly acknowledged by Byrne in an elaborate published version of the screenplay. Backgrounding the creative process is all very well, but the foreground, the film itself, is of more immediate concern to the viewer, and what you get in the foreground ain't very much shucks, no.

5.00 Holiday Island (PGR) 6.00 Daybreak. 7.00 Good Morning Australia. 9.00 Good Morning Melbourne. 10.00 Fat Cat and Friends. 10.30 Another World.

(PGR) 11.30 News Daywatch. Afternoon 12.00 Pot Luck. 1.00 The Rockford Files. (PGR) 2.00 FILM. The Boy From Oklahoma.

1954 western starring Will Rogers and Nancy Olsen. (R) 4.00 Andrew Daddo Presents. Home. (C)(R) 4.30 Simon Townsend's Wonder World. (C) (R) 5.00 The Brady Bunch.

(R) 5.30 Perfect Match. Quiz series. Evening 6.00 News, Sport, Weather. 7.00 Neighbours. Australian drama serial set in a suburban street Rob is horrified to discover that one of his new partners at the garage has no intention of remaining silent.

(S) 7.30 Mother and Son. Australian comedy series about an elderly widow and her son. Maggie's childlike presence disrupts a funeral. (PGR) (R) 8.00 Home Sweet Home. Australian comedy series.

Enzo acquires some expensive tickets for a soccer match. (PGR)(R) 8.40 Dallas. US super soap. Bobby and Pam's wedding day bliss at Southfork is shattered by an envious Ray Krebbs. (PGR) 9.40 CJLT.S Eyes.

British adventure series about a top secret government security unit (PGR) 10.50 News Update. 1 11.05 Wrestling. Celebrity bouts from the USA. (PGR) 12.05 Hogan's Heroes. (R) ii35NightshrftMuSiCvioOS, features and profiles of presented by David White.

(AO) All-night transmission. By BARBARA HOOKS Billboard (233m) Merry's Rules (7, 7.30pm) The Adventures of Sher-lock Holmes (7, 9.30pm) TV stars as follows: worth considering excellent not to be missed MELBOURNE impresario Clifford Hocking has been appointed artistic director of the 1990 Adelaide Festival, succeeding Lord Harewood, who is directing next year's festival. Mr Hocking, 55, has been responsible for bringing to Australia artists as varied as Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, Ravi Shankar, Woody Herman, Paco Pena, Keith Jarrett, Stephane Grappelli and Victor Borge. He played a key role in launching Barry Humphries' career, staging several tours, including his first one-man show in 1962. 7.30 The 7.30 Report (R) 8.00 Today's Special.

8.30 Sesame Street 9.30 Play School. (S) 10.00 Trap, Winkle and Box. (S) 10.20 The Explorers. 10.50 Passwords. 11.20 Infinity Limited.

(S) 11.40 Uuttoq. Afternoon 12.00 Quantum. (R) 12.30 Australian History. 1.00 Masterworks from the Worlds Great Museums. 1.10 Come and Get It 1.15 Rockschool.

1.40 For the Juniors. 2.00 Horizon. (R) (S) 2.50 Doctor de Soto. 3.00 Sesame Street 3.55 Thomas the Tank Engine and His Friends. 4.00 Play School.

(S) 4.30 The Sooty Show. 4.50 Mr Men. 5.00 The Campbells. 5.30 You can't do that on TV. Evening 6.00 Inspector Gadget (R) 6.25 Come and Get It 6.30 EastEnders.

7.00 News. 7 JO The 7.30 Report 8.00 A Big Country: After the Scrub. Some of the world's most picturesque and unique rain forests were to be found in Queensland's Atherton Tableland region. Today, only a small area remains. (S) 8.30 The Young Ones.

Manic BBC comedy series. Final. (PGR)(R) 9.05 Who Dares Wins. Satirical British series. Final (AO) 9.30 Billboard.

Program about new directions in the arts r.nd entertainment. 10.00 The CarletonWalsh Report 10 JO The Footy Show. Preview of the weekend's matches. 11.00 Soccer. The third quarter final in the 1987 English FA Cup, played on 15 March.

11.55 FILM. Come and Get it 1936 drama starring Edward -Arnold. (B4W)(R) 1.30 Close. 6.00 Atom Jerry. Beaver.

and 9.00 9.30 Romper Kitchen. (PGR) 12.00 World's Elvis (R) In. (R) Lassie. Fortune. series.

6.00 7.00 7.30 8.30 visits 9.30 A he for 10.40 11.30 12.00 MASSENET'S 'Cendrillon' will be presented on Sunday at 3 pm at the ANZ Pavilion, Victoria Arts Centre, as part of The Australian Opera's 'Opera On The Piano' series. Artists include Helen Borthwick, Patricia Price, Rosemary Gunn, Margaret Schindler, Kathryn Dineen and John Pringle. Bookings through Bass. A FOURTH Paul Simon concert, le June at the Entertainment Centre, has been announced for his Graceland tour of Australia. Bookings open Monday.

Footbrawl fans not mindless Review MICHAEL SHMITH "FIGHTING is a way of life," said the young fellow, who might have been talking about the Great War, the heavyweight championship of the world, or pigsticking. But he was talking about a modern fight of which he was one of many practitioners: football hooliganism. His comment came at the end of a BBC documentary on the subject ('Hooligans', Channel 2 at 8.30 pm) which investigated and explained a provocative issue with admirable skilL One was left with mixed feelings: outrage at what British hooligans are doing, but a sneaking admiration for their ability to organise and plan tactical warfare in such a way as to put even Hannibal offside. The program concentrated on a. bunch of highly organised London-based West Ham supporters and hooligans, the ICF.

This stands for the Inter-City Firm (possible motto: "Just a way of life, whose speciality is dealing with similar organisations who support other clubs, the further away the better. The ICF takes its name from the Inter-City rail network which It uses to get round Britain. What was so fascinating was the sophistication of the hooligans on display. While their weapons might be the broken bottle or plain fist the planning involved in that bottle or fist meeting their marks consists of two philosophies: getting there, and avoiding the police; there might even be time to watch the game. The big mistake, said one a team of sociologists who has been making a six-year study of the subject is to assume your average hooligan is.

mindless: he is not Nor is your average hooligan unemployed, and working out his aggressions: he has steady work and can also afford those whacking rail fares. 1: 6.00 6am with Eric Walters. 6.30 Today. 9.00 Here's Humphrey. .10.00 The Young Doctors.

'Australian drama serial. (R) 10.30 The Sullivans. (R) 11.30 Afternoon 12.06 Midday Show with Ray Martin. (PGR) 1.30 Days of Our Lives. US drama serial.

(PGR) 2.30 The Young and The Restless. US drama serial. (PGR) (R) 3.30 General Hospital. (PGR) 4.00 C'Mon Kids. (C) 5.00 The Bugs Bunny Show.

(C) 5.30 Say G'Day. Game show. Evening 6.00 News, Sport, Weather. 6.30 Willesee. Current affairs, hosted by Michael WiUesee.

7.00 Sale of the Century. Quiz series, hosted by Tony Barber. (S) 7.30 Murder She Wrote. US mystery series following the adventures of an amateur -sleuth. Tonight a young diver is murdered while searching for sunken treasure off Cabot Cove.

(PGR) 8.30 Miami Vice. US detective series. Crockett tries to help preserve the athletic career of a high school football star who inadvertently discovers a heroin ring. (AO) 9.30 Spenser for Hire. US detective series.

Hawk gets himself into serious trouble after taking over the contract of a heavyweight boxer. (AO) 10.30 Newsbreak. 10.35 MTV Music Television. Music videos, interviews and news from Australia and overseas. 2.35 FILM.

The Baby Maker. 1970 drama starring Barbara Hershey and Colin Witeox- Home. (AO) (R) 4.35 Bonanza. US western series. (PGR) (R) S.30 Ask tftyland Brothers.

AustraHafl'dofiumentary series. Daywatch. Continues. 7.00 Ant (R) 7.30 Tom and (R) 8.00 Leave It To (R) 8.30 Pebbles BarrBamm. Cartoons.

Catch Us If You Can. (R) Still the Beaver. 10.00 Room. 10.55 Fun in The 11.00 Eleven AM. Afternoon FILM.

It Happened at the Fair. 1963 musical stars Presley. (R) 2.00 Cop Shop. Australian drama series. (PGR) 3.00 When The Boat Comes British drama series.

(PGR) 4.00 Wombat (C) 4.30 (C) 5.00 Wheel of 5.30 Have a Go. Talent Evening News, Sport, Weather. Including Tatts 2 Draw No. 880. Terry Willesee Tonight Current affairs program.

Rafferty's Rules. A surprisingly different Australian drama series about a country stipendiary magistrate who is appointed to the tough Manly bench. (PGR) Beyond 2000: Report From NASA. Chris Ardill-Guinness NASA's major bases. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

British drama series based on the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. young pawnbroker's suspicions are aroused when answers an advertisement a job with a charitable foundation called The Red-Headed League. (Includes results of Tatts Zodiac Sweep Draw No. 30 (Aries). Newsworkt Strange, But True! A series which focuses on the unusual.

i News Overnight All-night news transmission, including Today. TAKE it from the man who knows. "Hollywood is a place where you spend more money than you make, on things you don't need, to impress people you don't like." Australian actors will soon have the benefit of more pearls of wisdom from the author of this one. Tony Shepherd is director of talent for one of the most prolific production houses in the US Aaron Spelling, producer of 'Dynasty', 'The Colbys' and 'Love Boat among other glitz and glamor soaps. Shepherd a child actor who boasts bis one claim to fame was playing Snoopy in 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' arrives in Australia on Sunday to start a Sydney-Melbourne lecture tour aimed at local actors who have their sights set on the world's film Mecca.

"There has been a great desire on the part of Australian actors to get information and instruction on how the business works from someone who knows," he said from Los Angeles yesterday. As many are called but few are chosen, Tony Shepherd's seminars emphasise survival tactics in a shark-infested coastal town where the dorsal fins have a habit of slicing through the shag pile at the Polo Lounge and the salsa at Ma Maison. "You need three things to survive in Hollywood; time, money and the patience of Job," he said. As a former actor, talent scout and director with 100 productions to his credit including several at London's Old Vic, where he served as artistic director, Tony Shepherd still finds it difficult to encapsulate what makes a star. "You know something, if I knew what I looked for, I would put it in a bottle and sell it" he said.

"You look for someone with that indescribable thing called Stardust It's who the human being is, what's inside the actor, what's inside their soul, their gut That combined with talent is what makes a star. And that by the way, is what we talk about extensively in the seminars." (Further infor- Afternoon 4.00 Learning Network. 4.30 Kaleidoscope. 5.00 CES Workshop. 5.30 The Noise.

Evening 6.00 Brookside. British drama serial. 6.30 World News. Presented by George Dpnikian. 7.00 Dance with Me.

Brazilian drama series about twins separated at birth and raised in ignorance of each other's existence. 7.30 Blaml Second of a new 13-part German comedy series about a new dance group. The group hears of a new band competition and Lilli decides that she'll, compete and win by fair means or foul. 8.00 Oshin. Japanese drama serial.

Japan accepts defeat but Oshin fears that Hitoshi will not return. 8.30 The Movie Show. SBS series exploring the world of cinema. 9.00 9 O'Ciock. Current affairs.

9.30 FILM. The Honey Pot 1979 Spanish comedy about three diverse characters thrown together by fate. 11.15 Flight of Eagles. Turkish drama series. 12.05 ciose.